May 16, 2008
Leslie M. Collins
Fisk University, M.A. '37
School of Graduate Studies '45, American Studies,
School of Information and Library Science '52
Current home: Nashville, Tennessee
Leslie M. Collins is a lifelong learner, educator, and lover of books both academic and popular. He was awarded a Ph.D. in 1945 by the Western Reserve University Department of American Culture. His thesis is entitled, "A Song, a Dance, and a Play: An Interpretative Study of Three American Artists."
In 1952, Dr. Collins returned to Western Reserve as a Ford Foundation fellow and received a master's in library science. He was later honored in 1985 by the university's American studies department at its 40th anniversary of conferring the doctorate in American culture.
With three advanced degrees plus postgraduate work at the University of Havana, the University of Oslo, the University of Florence, and the University of Madrid, Dr. Collins has studied the interrelationships of peoples of the world through literature. His work has taken him to Europe, the Far East, Russia, the Mediterranean including Egypt and Greece, and to Africa and Haiti.
Dr. Collins joined the Fisk University faculty in 1945 as a professor of English, teaching courses that have included Freshman Composition, Advanced Composition, Milton, and Black Literature. Dr. Collins taught the course, the Harlem Renaissance, and used as text his monograph, "The Harlem Renaissance Generation."
A longtime revered faculty member and mentor, he also developed bookmarks for undergraduates to teach them about Fisk writers and black authors, and produced a series of postcards relating to the history of Fisk through his Hines-Bontemps-Collins Memorial Project.
For 48 years, he reviewed books for the Nashville Tennessean. He produced several monographs for Fisk Library institutes and the text for his course on the Harlem Renaissance. He edited Listen Lord, a compilation of Jubilee Day prayers, meditations, tributes, and testaments of faith by Fisk students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends. In 1990, his One Hundred Years of Fisk Presidents was published; that same year, he received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Fisk.
His writings have extended beyond the university. His poem, Creole Girl, written in 1995, was set to music by Cleveland composer Leslie Adams and performed by Hilda Harris, a mezzo-soprano, and the Black Music Repertory Ensemble of Chicago, in a concert for national broadcast sponsored by the Manchester Craftsman's Guild of Pittsburgh.
Posted by: Heidi Cool May 16, 2008 10:43 AM
Category: Alumni
, Fisk Faculty
, Legacy
, School of Graduate Studies
, School of Information and Library Science